


Can You Canoe?

by Starship_Phoenix



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Campfires, Camping, Fluff, M/M, Stargazing, canoeing, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21787882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starship_Phoenix/pseuds/Starship_Phoenix
Summary: Sokka and Zuko take an impromptu canoeing trip.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 230





	Can You Canoe?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grayfae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayfae/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
> 
> I've been planning this fic since...(insert me scrolling through our messages for 15 minutes) June 1st! I hope you enjoy this short fic of Sokka and Zuko being cute:)

The canoe rocked dangerously as Zuko clambered in. 

“Watch it,” Sokka said. “You’ll tip it over like that. You’d think you’d never been in a canoe before! Three points of contact, man!”

Zuko blushed faintly as he sat down on the seat of the canoe. It was honestly kind of adorable. Man, his mind _really_ decided to go off the rails when Suki broke up with him, didn’t it? Sokka looked at Zuko, who pointedly looked away. 

“Wait…have you never been in a canoe?”

“Well…no.”

Sokka raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you spend several years on a boat?”

“Yes. But that was a ship, not a canoe. It’s different,” Zuko said defensively. 

“Alright, fair enough. But why did you volunteer to come with me, if you’ve never been canoeing? I hope you don’t think I’m going to be doing all the work.”

“Of course not!” Zuko protested. “It’s just...I...well I wanted to _do_ something. It seems all I’m good for up here is lighting fires. And even that, Katara will tell me I’m doing wrong.”

“Oh. Well, don’t take it personally, Katara’s just like that.”

Sokka handed Zuko a paddle, then climbed in himself. “This is a paddle,” he said, holding up his own.

Zuko rolled his eyes. “I know.”

“Do you? Because you’re holding it all wrong. Put your thumb,” he leaned over and grabbed Zuko’s hand, then maneuvered his fingers so he was gripping the paddle correctly, “here. There you go. Now your other hand,” he said, sliding Zuko’s down along the shaft. “Does that feel better?”

“Yeah,” Zuko said, eyes wide. 

“Don’t act so surprised, I know what I’m doing.”

“Not surprised,” Zuko said quickly. “Just amazed at the difference a small shift in form can have.”

“Sounds like something a bender would say.”

Zuko blinked at that. “I suppose it does.”

Sokka pushed off from the rocky shoreline with the handle of his paddle, then flipped it around in his hand and dipped the blade into the water. The canoe glided silently across the slow river. Sokka used his paddle as a rudder to point the canoe downstream.

It was nice to be in the open air, even if it was the dead of winter in northern Earth Kingdom. He’d spent the last few days inside, trying to help negotiate for more funding to repair the Northern Air Temple, and the stuffy nobles and politicians were driving him crazy. He’d offered to go hunting just for an excuse to get away for a few days, and then Zuko had shocked him by agreeing to come along. He was glad for the company. 

Zuko wasn’t... _terrible_ at paddling. He picked up the basics quickly enough. His form needed some work, but he was strong. Perhaps a little _too_ strong. Sokka had to keep correcting their course.

“You don’t need to _attack_ the water. You’re making it harder for me to keep us on course.”

Zuko turned around in his seat. The canoe wobbled a bit. “Oh. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s fine. Just...work _with_ the water, don’t fight it. Canoeing is all about balance. If one of us is out of sync with the other, we’re going to end up crashing into something.”

“Sounds like something a bender would say,” Zuko said. It was Sokka’s turn to blink in surprise. 

“I suppose it does.”

Zuko smiled and turned back around. Sokka’s stomach did a funny little flip. It had been doing that a lot lately, whenever he hung out with Zuko. It was like his emotions couldn’t decide how to feel about him. 

Being friends with Zuko had been unexpected, but ultimately fun. They got along well and had similar interests. It was easy to talk with Zuko, and just as easy to exist in peaceful silence with him. Sokka could handle that. But this...his gaze being drawn to the way Zuko’s arms and shoulders moved, that spot of pale skin between his hair and the collar of his shirt, the intensity in his eyes every time he turned around and -

“Sokka, we’re going to crash.”

“Wha-”

The canoe smashed into a tree with a jolting thud. Branches slapped Sokka in the face and he threw his hands up to prevent himself from losing an eye. The pull of the river dragged the canoe through low hanging branches, scraping against the wood and getting caught in the camping supplies stowed in the middle of the boat. He and Zuko had to lean to the side to avoid them. 

The canoe tipped sideways. Sokka and Zuko tipped sideways. 

A splash. A moment of shock, panic, _cold_ before Sokka got his bearings. He took stock. The canoe had righted itself and was drifting down river. Zuko was flailing and gasping. 

“Don’t panic,” Sokka said, trying not to panic himself. “You’ll tire yourself out. _Breathe,_ Zuko.”

Zuko breathed. When Sokka was sure the Fire Lord was in no danger of drowning, he swam over to the canoe and hauled himself in. He extended a paddle out to Zuko and pulled him in, then hooked his arms under Zuko’s armpits and yanked him out of the water and into the canoe, where they lay tangled together, chests heaving.

“Thanks,” Zuko gasped as he peeled himself off Sokka. Sokka nodded and handed Zuko his paddle. 

And then the cold _really_ set in. Sokka could barely keep his fingers gripped around the paddle. The bottom of the canoe was a puddle of ice-cold water and the wind off the water chilled him to the bone. 

They paddled to the nearest stretch of bare shoreline, and when the canoe scraped against the shore, Sokka jumped out and pulled it the rest of the way in. 

“We need to light a fire,” Sokka said the second Zuko joined him on shore. Zuko nodded in affirmation, jaw clenched tight. He was sopping wet, hair plastered to his face, arms wrapped around his middle as if that would keep the heat in.

This hunting trip was off to a miserable start. 

Zuko began gathering fallen branches for the fire while Sokka unloaded the camping gear from the canoe. Luckily it had been tied down so it hadn’t fallen out when the canoe tipped, but the tent was soaking wet. 

So was nearly everything else. 

Sokka was taking inventory of their food when a flicker of light pulled his gaze. Zuko had gotten the fire started. Sokka had never been more grateful that Zuko was a firebender. 

Sokka hauled himself and the food bag over to the small fire and settled down on the dirt next to Zuko. He had taken off his coat and was wringing it out. Sokka’s gaze lingered on the way Zuko’s undershirt clung to his skin. 

“I’m sorry for crashing the canoe,” Zuko said.

“No,” Sokka shook his head, “it was my fault. I was distracted by - no, actually it _is_ your fault. You’re very distracting, did you know that?”

“Was I really that bad?”

“No! You were…” Sokka felt heat rise to his cheeks. He’d never been one to hide his feelings, but this was _Zuko_. He didn’t want to make things weird. “You’re really hot, okay?”

Well there went his attempt to not make things weird. 

“I’m a firebender.”

“That’s not what I…” Sokka rubbed the back of his head. He sighed. “You’re…” he gestured to Zuko’s _everything_ , “pretty. And muscular. That’s a very distracting combination.”

Zuko’s brow scrunched adorably. “You think I’m pretty?”

“And muscular,” Sokka added. Then he groaned. “Just. Pretend I never said anything. We can go back to being awkwardly silent.” He turned away and busied himself with pulling out their dinner of slightly soggy meat.

He could practically _feel_ Zuko’s eyes on his back, but neither of them said anything.

Soon, the fire’s warmth began to drive out the cold. Instead of sopping wet he was damp; instead of freezing he was mildly chilly. He watched as the flames licked at the sticks and branches, and watched the smoke curled into the air. Sparks rose from the fire with each crackle of dry wood. 

“This brings back old memories,” Sokka finally said, breaking the silence.

“Did you go camping often when you were younger?”

“You mean when we were being chased across the world?” Sokka joked. “Yeah, we spent a lot of nights around a fire like this.” 

Zuko shifted uncomfortably. He still felt guilty about how he used to be, but Sokka didn’t hold it against him anymore. They’d all been dumb kids in over their heads. 

“What about you?” Sokka asked. “Did you go camping much?”

“You mean when I was chasing you across the world?”

Sokka laughed and bumped Zuko’s shoulder with his own. “Touché.” 

“Yeah. When it was just me and Uncle. We’d sit next to the fire and he’d try to teach me what plants made good teas and what plants would make a badgermole drop dead.” 

Sokka laughed. “Sounds a lot more relaxing than anything we ever experienced.” 

“I guess in retrospect it was. In the moment I was so stressed and on edge, I hated stopping to rest for even a minute.” Zuko tilted his head back and looked up. “I never even looked at the stars.”

Sokka looked at Zuko, eyebrows raised. “Never?” 

“I tried to count them all my first night at sea and ended up falling asleep on deck, but when the crew found me the next morning, I realized I couldn’t get them to take me seriously if I acted like a child who had never left the palace. After that, I was too focused on restoring my honor, and then I was too focused on just staying alive.” 

Sokka tore his gaze away from Zuko’s face and looked up too. The sky was an endless stretch of black, sprinkled with thousands of stars. “I took them for granted, I think. I forgot how many there are sometimes, living in the city, where you can’t see them. We’d use the stars to navigate when we were travelling, but I never really... _gazed_ at them, you know? Not like this.”

“Yeah,” Zuko said softly. “This is...nice. I needed this.”

“Even Fire Lords deserve breaks,” Sokka said. “Repairing the world takes a lot of energy. You’ll burn out if you don’t recharge.”

“Thank you,” Zuko said.

“For what?”

“For inviting me. For...being a good friend. You don’t have to. I’d understand if you wanted nothing to do with me.”

“After all we went through together? Nah, man, we’re friends for life now. You can’t break in and out of a maximum security prison and then save the world together and not come out the other side friends.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Zuko surprised Sokka by leaning into his side. He gave Zuko a questioning look, heart thumping in his chest, stomach doing that flipping thing again. 

“I’m cold,” Zuko said.

“You’re a firebender.” 

“I’m cold,” Zuko repeated. “And you’re hot.”

Sokka’s mouth went round. “Oh.” He leaned into Zuko. He wasn’t cold at all. He was warm, and Sokka never wanted to pull away. 

They sat like that, pressed into each others’ warmth. Then Sokka shifted, and his hand brushed Zuko’s. Instead of pulling away, he let it sit there, hesitant. Questioning. Zuko didn’t pull away. Sokka slowly entwined his fingers with Zuko’s. Zuko squeezed his hand. Not hard, but reassuring. Neither of them said anything. Zuko leaned his head on Sokka’s shoulder. They looked up at the stars. 

There was no noise but the crackling fire, the waves breaking along the shore, their warm breaths in the cold air, and their hearts, beating in time with each other.


End file.
